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German Inflation Turns Negative

German Inflation Turns Negative
German Inflation Turns Negative

German annual inflation turned negative in September for the first time in eight months, preliminary data from the Federal Statistics Office showed, undershooting the consensus forecast for consumer prices in Europe’s largest economy to stagnate.

German prices harmonized to compare with other European countries fell by 0.2%, the weakest reading since January, after a 0.1% rise in August, data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The reading was well below the European Central Bank’s inflation target for the whole eurozone of just below 2%. Economists had expected it to slow to 0.0%.

The statistics office said it would publish final consumer price data for September on Oct. 13.

German government bond yields reached the lowest level in more than a month amid speculation that the European Central Bank’s stimulus measures won’t boost inflation toward its goal anytime soon, underpinning the case for more easy monetary policies that have been supporting prices, Bloomberg reported.

Ten-year bunds, Europe’s benchmark sovereign securities, pared Monday’s advance. German states started to release consumer-price reports on Tuesday, before data for the eurozone due the following day. Economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast that inflation vanished in September, after registering annual growth rates of 0.2% for three consecutive months, short of the ECB’s target of just below 2%.

Government bonds across the eurozone were supported Monday as deepening stock-market losses fueled demand for fixed-income assets as havens. The rout in equities and commodities, together with the prospect of China’s slowdown dimming the outlook for global growth, has boosted demand for sovereign debt on speculation central banks will maintain or extend stimulus. Spanish bonds were little changed, holding gains from a day earlier, even as a report showed consumer prices dropped in September by the most since February.

Germany’s 10-year bund yield rose one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 0.60%, after falling to 0.57%, the lowest since Aug. 24. The 1% security due in August 2025 dropped 0.14, or €1.40 per €1,000 ($1,123) face amount, to 103.815.

German 10-year yields headed for a quarterly drop, after an increase in the three months to June broke a five-quarter run of declines.

Financialtribune.com